This invention relates to a three axes structural lock and, more particularly, the invention is concerned with providing a lock device for maintaining the rotatable and despun portions of a spacecraft in position during launch and permitting separation after launch by causing a single sliding pin to be retracted.
Heretofore, the common practice in designing locking device for structually connecting the spun and despun sections of a dual spin spacecraft included a device having locking capability in two directions only. This type structural locking device is required for connecting, during the launch phase, the rotatable structural portion of the spacecraft and the despun structural shelf commonly used in the dual spin spacecraft. In order for the connection of the two spacecraft elements to remain locked during the launch phase, it is necessary to react the transverse loads, axial loads and rotational loads. Normally, this would require at least two separate locking devices since only two of the loads can be restrained with each locking device and many times three separate devices are installed, one for each of the loads. It can be seen that the plurality of locking devices does create a greater possibility of malfunction and failure of operation with the resulting chance of failure of the entire space mission.
The present invention provides an improved locking arrangement which reduces the possibility of failure by using a single pyrotechnic pin puller to activate the unlocking mechanism. The single pin and associated hardware, by utilizing the inherent structural capability of the despun platform, react: (a) transverse loads, (b) axial loads and (c) rotational loads.